As a great snow storm threatens America’s heartlands, the President considers an appropriate leadership response.His briefing team has supplied him with a range of options

Option 1

say all news of the storm is false and show photograph of President enjoying sun on beach in Miami

Option 2

make snow disappear, bigly, from a helicopter

Option 3

find snowed-in family and rescue them single-handed from husky-sled with Trump-branded merchandise

Option 4

increase tweet rate commensurate with seriousness of storm

Option 5

release the best tax payment year document

What not to do

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans with devastating effect, in February 2006, President Bush showed he cared by flying over the region. He was criticized for failing to show enough empathy. The image of the POTUS, safe and smug overflying the disaster zone, turned out to be a PR personal mini-disaster.

He had been slow in postponing his holiday in Texas, and he and his administration were accused of politicizing the storm in a region with a Democratic governor.

The event was later referred to as a watershed in his leadership ratings, and his missed opportunity to show respond adequately in person, and subsequently in taking decisive action.

Defying the snowflakes

Leadership is often symbolic. Mr Trump has an opportunity to show his undoubted flair for the immediate big gesture. to defy a billion snowflakes.